License holder



y 19, 1959 H. A. STEPHENSON 2,886,907

LICENSE HOLDER Filed May 17, 1957 INVENTUR. IO/ HELEN A. STEPHENSON 14 f/orn eY- United States Patent Ofiice LICENSE HOLDER Helen A. Stephenson, Longview, Wash.

Application May 17, 1957, Serial No. 659,831

1 Claim. (Cl. 40-10) This invention relates to improvements in holders and, more specifically, is illustrated herein as a holder for licenses and permits for business establishments or the like.

Most States, counties and municipalities require licenses or permits to be purchased by proprietors of business establishments for the right to do business or for other purposes, and also require that such licenses or permits be displayed in open view. These documents frequently are pinned on the wall or adhered to window glass to make them readily visible. Such display of documents is generally unattractive, and, in addition, the licenses or permits become damaged or soiled in such open display and present even more of an unattractive appearance. Holders for such purpose have heretofore been proposed with transparent pockets but these are not entirely satisfactory because of the great variation in size of the licenses and the ditficulty of removing a small license from a deep pocket without damaging the holder.

An important object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a novel holder for documents of the type described which supports said documents in a neat and orderly manner.

Another object of the invention is to provide a holder of the type described which encloses documents to protect them from dirt, vapor or damage and, at the same time, displays said documents in open view, and which has means providing for convenient access to the documents when necessary.

Another object is to provide a display holder without pockets which will support and protect cards, papers and documents of widely varying size in readily accessible position in full view.

The objects set forth above are achieved by a docu ment holder having a plurality of transverse folded ledge strips supported on a stiff back board. The holder has a transparent flap overlying the face thereof which serves to protect the documents in the holder, and, by means of this holder, all the licenses, permits or other documents may be assembled in a single place and posted for open viewing. One end of the flap is engageable in a bottom pocket when the flap is closed so as to lie fiat on the face of the holder and prevent dust, vapor, or the like from reaching the documents.

The invention will be better understood and additional objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred form of the invention. It is to be understood, however, that the invention may take other forms, and that all such modifications and variations within the scope of the appended claims which will occur to persons skilled in the art are included in the invention.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a face view of the present license holder showing the transparent cover flap disengaged from its retaining pocket;

Patented May 19, 1959 Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure 1 but showing the cover flap engaged in its retaining pocket;

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 1; and

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 1.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the holder has a stiff, non-foldable back board 10 made from cardboard, fiberboard, or the like, with a smooth face surface and provided with an eye hook 12 at its top end for hanging on the wall. Disposed transversely of the holder are a plurality of strips 14, each having a bottom upward fold or flange 15, Figure 3, forming a shallow retaining ledge 16 for supporting licenses 17 or other documents. Each of the strips 14 lies flat on the back 10 and is secured to the back along its upper edge by a strip of adhesive tape 18, the lower folded edges of the strips 14 not being secured to the back. The length of the strips 14 is approximately the same as the width of the back and the side edges of the back are bound with tape 20 bent thereover, as best seen in Figure 5, for protecting these edges and for positively anchoring the ends of the ledge strips 14. Binding tape 20 may be stitched or stapled in place if desired but is preferably adhesively secured.

The holder has a bottom cover flap retaining pocket 21 formed by a transverse strip 22 which, in the construction of the holder, is cut to a slightly greater length than the width of the holder so that the ends thereof can be bent around the edges of the back, Figure 4, and extend a short distance across the rear face. The ends of the strip 22 are secured to the rear face of the back by a vertical strip of tape 23, and this pocket strip is secured to the back board throughout its length at its bottom edge by tape 24. The top edge of this pocket strip is bound by folded tape 26 and the bottom of the back board 10 is bound by tape 27 which overlies the tape 24.

A flexible cover flap 30 overlies the front face of the back board 10 and is secured at the top of the holder by a strip of tape 33 and binding tape 34. This flap is bound at its sides and bottom by tape 35 and the lower end thereof is adapted to fit in the pocket 21 as shown in Figure 3 so that the whole flap will lie fiat against the front face of the holder. By the construction of the bottom pocket 21 wherein the strip 22 extends around the edges of the back board, a full width retaining pocket is provided and the flap 30 can assume a width almost that of the back board and yet be freely inserted into the pocket. The flap thereby fully covers the whole area for the licenses and protects said licenses from dirt, vapor, or other damage.

The cover flap 30 and the transverse strips 14, as well as strip 22, are formed from a clear plastic or cellophane material so that documents supported in the several ledges are readily visible in their mounted positions. These documents seat in the ledge folds 16 and are held in an upright position by the ledge walls 15. If a license will not stand upright by itself in a ledge 16 then the top thereof may be tucked under the next upper strip 14. This may necessitate shifting the license to another ledge 16 wherein the next upper strip is spaced therefrom a distance less than the height of the license. The strips 14 are preferably spaced apart different distances in a vertical direction to accommodate licenses of diiferent sizes. An unusually large document may be allowed to overlie one or more of the strips 14 as it will in any event be retained and held flat by the cover flap 30. When cover flap 30 is raised, all the licenses are exposed and accessible.

It will be apparent from the disclosure that the present invention is useful for holding and displaying documents of the type described in a neat and orderly fashion and in open view as required by law. The holder may, however, be used for many other purposes than the one described such as for bulletin boards and advertising display boards. The holder accommodates cards and papers of all sizes not exceeding its overall dimensions with all portions of the displayed articles exposed to View.

Having now described my invention and in what manner the same may be used, What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

A display holder for a plurality of licenses and the like comprising a stiff rectangular back board having top, bottom and side edges, a tape binding on said edges, a plurality of transverse ledge strips extending across the face of said back board in vertically spaced relation for supporting said licenses, said ledge strips being secured at their ends under said binding and secured intermediate their ends by individual transverse strips of adhesive tape,

said strips of adhesive tape overlapping edge portions of i said ledge strips and being adhered throughout their lengths to said back board and said ledge strips, 9. full length flexible transparent cover flap slightly narrower References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 499,936 Posen June 20, 1893 781,222 Morse Jan. 3, 1905 811,846 Hidden Feb. 6, 1906 1,408,469 Rand Mar. 7, 1922 1,790,287 Stevens et a1. Jan. 27, 1931 1,801,546 Enderle Apr. 21, 1931 1,972,012 Falkofi Aug. 28, 1934 2,677,910 Morgan May 11, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 219,156 Switzerland Jan. 31, 1942 

